BEREA: Perhaps nobody embodies the frustration the Browns are feeling more than wide receiver Terrelle Pryor.
The Browns have had their past three opponents on the ropes but failed to win each time. With a record of 0-4, they’re the only winless team in the NFL after three turnovers in the second half doomed them Sunday in a 31-20 loss to Washington.
“It’s like nothing can go right,” Pryor said Monday.
Not only did Pryor have an emotional outburst on the sideline at FedExField after the officiating crew ruled Washington recovered a fourth-quarter fumble, the Browns thought running back Duke Johnson corralled, but Pryor also declined to speak to the media after the game.
“A wise man once told me, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,’ ” Pryor said.
“Do I get tempered on the sideline? Absolutely, because I want to win,” he added. “Some guys handle things the wrong way. Sometimes it’s the right way. I don’t know. I wear my frustration on my sleeve sometimes, and sometimes it gets the best of me. But that’s how bad I want it, and sometimes it comes across in a bad way. But I don’t mean it that way.”
Keeping the faith
Browns coach Hue Jackson, meanwhile, is trying to be a calming influence for a team with 16 rookies, three first-year players and nine second-year players on its roster.
“The last three games I would hope showed you that I expect to win because this team is playing with the opportunity to win,” Jackson said. “We just have to finish those games.
“There is no question in my mind it is going to happen. When is it going to happen? I don’t know, but I know it is going to happen.”
They would need one of the year’s biggest upsets to turn the corner Sunday at home against quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots (3-1). Brady is coming off his four-game suspension from “Deflategate.”
“Not fun at all,” Jackson said of facing Brady. “He will be champing at the bit.”
Until the Browns win, it’ll be hard for Jackson to fully appreciate the progress some of their young players are making.
“I didn’t think it would be this difficult,” Jackson said. “It is tough, but I’m seeing a lot of the young guys improve. We are just not seeing what I want to see and what the team wants to see on the other side of the ledger.”
Turnovers on three consecutive possessions — fumbles by fullback Malcolm Johnson and Duke Johnson and an interception thrown by rookie quarterback Cody Kessler — killed the Browns this past weekend. They lost the turnover battle 3-1, and Washington (2-2) scored 14 points off takeaways in the fourth quarter to overcome a three-point deficit.
Questionable call
Duke Johnson’s fumble might be the toughest pill to swallow because he and the Browns are convinced he recovered it and the officials erred by giving the ball to Washington.
With the Browns trailing 24-20 and facing second-and-2 at the 50-yard line, Duke Johnson rushed 5 yards and fumbled. As line judge Sarah Thomas searched in a pile of bodies, Johnson stood nearby holding the ball in the air. Then Thomas signaled that Washington inside linebacker Will Compton recovered the fumble at Washington’s 43 with 9:32 left in the fourth quarter. An NFL spokesman said the replay official looked at several different angles, but none of them definitively showed who recovered the fumble, so the call on the field stood.
Jackson said the Browns will send the play to the league for clarification.
“[On the field, Thomas] said, ‘Coach, it has been reviewed. I got the signal that it is a turnover,’ ” Jackson said. “I can’t challenge it anyway. I know people want me to jump on the officials right there and run on the field and go bananas and all that, but what is that going to do? I’m not going to let my team ever see me lose it like that.
“It seemed like a bang, bang play. It was a fumble, and then, boom, we had the ball. But that is not the way they judged it, so we have to go with their decision.”
Rivalry with Norman
Pryor said he still “can’t believe” the call.
“I think [the officials] thought the ball was still in the pile, and me and Duke was tapping the refs and saying, ‘We got the ball right here,’ ” Pryor said.
Pryor is also frustrated with his performance because he didn’t block well enough.
“I got to be better, and it starts with holding myself accountable,” he said.
He’s also irritated with the perception that Washington All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman shut him down in the second half.
“I just went ghost, right?” Pryor said. “Nah, we were running the ball great.”
Pryor dominated Norman in the first half with four catches for 42 yards and a touchdown on four targets. After halftime, he had just one catch for 4 yards on five targets. He dropped one pass, and Kessler threw a couple behind him.
“[Pryor] pushed off me a couple of times, but they aren’t going to call it every time,” Norman said after the game. “I can’t rely on that. I have to play strong through all that [Pryor] was doing then. I did. I came back second half and went to a dark place. Went to one of those places that shut him down, locked him down.”
Asked about the comment, Pryor made it clear Norman couldn’t handle him man-to-man.
“The guy’s a great player,” Pryor said. “First half, he’s press cover. Second half, he’s playing off coverage in zone. So that’s all I’ll say.”
What’s more important is the Browns let another team off the hook.
“You could tell they were about to say uncle,” Pryor said. “ ... It’s crazy how so many times we’re up and we’re in the game and beating them, and then something goes wrong.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.